Portable Concession Stands

Portable Concession Stands & Snack Bars

Fast and affordable, modular construction is the ideal choice for a concession stand in a baseball field, concert venue or other setting. BMarko Structures specializes in the design and manufacture of portable concession stands from reclaimed shipping containers or other prefabricated materials. Our products offer exceptional value without sacrificing comfort or functionality. They’re also a great choice for the environment!

Keep reading to learn more about the design and build processes associated with creating a custom concession stand for your venue.

Building Your Modular Shipping Concession Stand

The first step in the portable concession stand construction process is to determine your desired footprint. The shipping containers that form the basis of our designs come in 20′ or 40′ lengths, and they are typically 8′ wide by either 8’6″ or 9’6″ high. Most portable concession stands are fairly simple and require only one container, but we also have the expertise to create a more complex design. Check out our online portfolio to get inspired by some of the projects we have previously completed for our clients.

We also offer various options to further customize your portable concession stand. Depending on how and where you plan on deploying your stand, we can add insulation and air conditioning, windows and doors, drywall paneling and more. Whether you want to keep your design simple and cost-effective, or want a more comfortable and classy space, our products are fully customizable and offer exceptional value at any price point.

Modular Concession Stand Benefits

Modular construction is gaining in popularity for everything from athletic facilities and press boxes, to restaurants and more. For a portable concession stand, there are multiple reasons why building modular is the best choice for any budget:

Cost

Starting with a ready-made shell not only saves you on material costs, but it also means less labor is required to complete the build. Shipping containers are perfectly sized for a portable concession stand, which gives employees ample room to move and more than enough storage space.

Environmental friendliness

Repurposing a customized shipping container to form the basis of a portable concession stand saves trees and keeps old metal out of landfills. In addition to the containers themselves, BMarko uses additional recycled materials whenever possible. We can install energy-efficient insulation and heating/cooling systems.

Flexibility

Modular construction is often thought of as limiting, but all BMarko designs are custom-built to our clients’ exact specifications. Download our free whitepaper outlining all the possibilities of modular construction today!

Benefits of Shipping Container Concession Stands

Portable concession stands are prevalent throughout the United States. You’ll commonly find portable concession stands at local and regional events such as street fairs, music fests and farmer’s markets. You’ll also probably see concession stands for high schools when you watch a hometown football or baseball game. Concession stands are sometimes present in the parking lots of non-competing businesses such as hardware stores or gas stations, too. You’ll see permanent concession stands in highly trafficked venues such as airports, movie theaters, professional sports stadiums and entertainment arenas as well.

Incorporating concession stands contributes to the bottom line of certain industries significantly. The 2013 Airport Concessions Benchmarking Survey drew on data from 94 airports responsible for 79 percent of passengers in America and 48 percent of passenger traffic in Canada. The report shows that airport terminal concession revenue totaled $1.54 billion in 2012, with food and beverage sales in airport terminals located in the United States contributing 35 percent of that total.

Concession stands are responsible for about 40 percent of the net revenue generated by movie theaters. Like stands in other industries such as the movie theater business, food and beverage concession stands at Major League Baseball parks throughout the country have average profit margins that would make many business owners in other industries envious.

Here is a list of some popular food items sold at professional baseball stadiums and their respective profit margins:

Nachos: 47–64 percent

Hot Dogs: 62–81 percent

Pizza: 69–75 percent

Small Popcorn: 82–87 percent

Large Popcorn: 88–92 percent

Snow Cones: 92–97 percent

With profit margins as high as 97 percent, it’s clear that you have the chance to make money by operating a food concession stand if you have the right location, an attractive, clean structure, a steady flow of customers and reasonable ongoing operating costs. What isn’t as obvious, however, are the intrinsic benefits that being in this business provides.

In an interview with StartingABiz.com, industry insider and author of Food Booth: The Entrepreneur’s Complete Guide to the Food Concession Business, Barb Fitzgerald shared the following thoughts:

“I think the food concession business is different from any other business. The one thing, nearly anyone can run a concession business. You don’t need to have any kind of experience or a college degree — you don’t even need to be a good cook. It’s also good for people who want a business that doesn’t take up all of their time because it can be customized to suit their lifestyle.

For example, some people use a concession to supplement their income and for paying for college, andothers might use a concession as a backup in case they lose their job, or because they’ve become unemployed. And I see a lot of retirees who use a concession as an excuse to travel. But for many people, the concession is their sole source of income. I also see a lot of families who get involved in the concession business because the entire family can participate, including the kids. I think it’s the perfect family business. There’s no other business I know of that you can start so easily and so inexpensively, but still make so much money. It’s also a lot of fun.”

Concession Stands for Sporting Events and Other Activities

Depending on the venue you’re visiting or the event you’re attending, you may see food concession stands housed by tents or wooden structures. If you’re at a professional sports stadium or arena, the park’s cement interior likely contains the concession stands. While concession stand operators generally have to rent the space where they’re selling food, renting space for your concession stand at a professional sports venue can be particularly expensive. In some cases, you may have to pay a flat fee of $100,000 or more and give up to 50 percent of your sales dollars to the arena’s owners, for instance.

Whether you’re thinking about opening one high school concession stand or multiple stands for sporting events, there is an alternative to using a tent, stick-building a wooden facility or renting a brick-and-mortar concession stand – shipping container concession stands.

A shipping container concession stand is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a stand created by using a re-purposed shipping container from the goods transportation industry. You can choose to have your portable concession stand made from a “new” shipping container that has only made one trip across the ocean or you can opt to use a less expensive “retired” container that has been on multiple voyages during its transportation career. Both types of containers are equally durable, but retired containers may have a ding or a dent that often lends some added character to structures made with them.

In general, shipping containers are a standard size, so that they’re easy to load onto ships and fill with similar amounts and weights of products. This standardization makes them ideal for building, because their shared characteristics make them somewhat similar to literal building blocks that all have the same look, measurements and capabilities. This means that if you want multiple portable concession stands that have the same design, so that they are easily identifiable by consumers, converted shipping containers are an ideal choice. It also means that if you want a larger concession stand made from more than one shipping container, you can use multiple containers that have the same physical traits to create an expanded horizontal work area or a vertical storage area.

Whether they are new or retired, shipping containers typically have the following features:

Available exterior insulation options as well as space saving narrower studs

Can be used to create a new structure or as additions to existing buildings

The Benefits of Shipping Container Concession Stands

Shipping container portable concession stands can be either mobile or stationary, meaning you can get one that you can take from venue to venue easily or you can order one that will remain at a single location permanently. Regardless of whether you choose to use a portable or stationary shipping container concession stand to launch or expand your food concession business, the benefits of having this type of concession stand over a stick-built wooden concession stand remain the same.

The benefits of shipping container portable concession stands include the following:

Cost: Since less labor and fewer materials are required to make shipping container concession stands instead of comparable on-site wooden structures, they are normally less expensive to buy. Modular construction costs 25 – 60 percent less than on-site construction. This means you can enter the food and beverage concession business for less money by purchasing a shipping container concession stand instead of having one constructed on location.

Durability: The walls and doors of standardized commercial shipping containers are steel. The steel is sandblasted and corrugated, which gives the walls and doors added strength. While it will be covered with plywood, the frame of the floor mostly consists of C-channels that are used to create a base that resembles a raft made from pieces of wood. Every shipping container has load bearing corner posts and a steel roof panel. Given their construction and the material used to create them, portable concession stands made from shipping containers are more durable than their wooden counterparts.

Weather Resistance: Since shipping containers transport goods across the ocean, they must be able to withstand harsh weather conditions and corrosive elements such as sea salt. Before a shipping container leaves a manufacturing plant, it is prepped with an undercoating or primer, which serves two purposes. First, it provides a layer of protection against the elements. It also helps paint adhere to the container better. Once the primer is dry, the container then receives multiple layers of paint. The added paint further protects the container from the weather and elements. The protective layers that go into finishing a shipping container will help your shipping container concession stand tolerate extreme weather and damaging elements better than a wooden structure can.

Pest Resistance: Wooden structures sometimes attract pests that feed off or live in the materials made to construct the buildings, including termites and carpenter ants. While it’s possible to deter pests from a wooden concession stand through various means such as staining it, you wouldn’t have to take such measure if you had a shipping container concession stand. In addition to supportive C-channels, the floor of a modified shipping container consists of panels of plywood. Before they attach the wood to a container’s floor beams, these panels are treated with a varnish that is pest resistant. With pest resistant flooring and a steel casing, shipping container concession stands are resistant to bugs as a function of their construction.

Security: Again, because of their construction, the benefits of shipping container concession stands include added security. To guard against theft, you can simply lock down your shipping container concession stand at the end of the workday.

Environmental Excellence: According to some estimates, approximately one-third of the material in landfills comes from construction projects that are built on-site. Since portable concession stands made from shipping containers use shells that are already in existence, the amount of material needed to create one of them is comparatively small. The term for making shipping container concession stands is modular construction, which involves repurposing materials that may otherwise end up as waste in landfills. This type of construction sometimes incorporates environmentally friendly alternative energy sources such as geothermal heat. Given their flat rooftops, shipping containers are ideal candidates for solar panels, which provide energy efficiency and operating cost savings. Modular construction is done indoors, which lets less dust escape into the environment compared to outdoor stick builds as well.

Time: Another benefit of building shipping container portable concession stands inside is that the timeline for creating one is not dependent on the weather in any way. When a wooden stand requires building on-site, and bad weather crops up, construction may have to stop until the storm passes, depending on how far along the project is. Weather-related delays can prolong the length of time it takes for a wooden concession stand to finish construction. Avoiding such delays is one of the many benefits of shipping container concession stands. In general, you can save 25 – 50 percent of the time it takes to build a wooden concession stand on-site by getting a custom shipping container concession stand instead. By saving time, you reduce the labor costs involved with creating your concession stand, and you’ll be able to start using your stand to earn money sooner.

Starting a Concession Stand Business

Have you ever dreamed of being your own boss or running a business to raise money for you high school, alma mater or a local charity? Have you ever thought about entering an industry that has comparatively low entry costs and potentially high profit margins? have you ever wanted to work in a field that give you the opportunity to make money, work with family and meet new people?

If you’ve ever wanted to do any or all of those things, you may want to consider getting into the food concession business, and a shipping container concession stand could be the answer to you dreams.

Customizing a Shipping Container Concession Stand

If you’re going into the food and beverage concession business or you’re planning to expand your current operation, you are going to have specific needs when it comes to your concession stand. These needs will be determined by a variety of factors, including your intended location, the food and drinks you’re going to sell, the audience you hope to attract and whether you want a mobile or stationary concession stand, among other considerations.

Satisfying the individual requirements of clients located throughout the country from its Atlanta, Georgia headquarters, BMarko Structures can customize a shipping container concession stand to your exact standards. We can add vinyl flooring to guard against moisture, glass doors for a transparent operation, insulation to keep heating and cooling costs low, air conditioning for comfort, an indoor restroom for your convenience…the list of what we can do is nearly endless.

Regardless of whether you’re going to offer gourmet fare or less complex food and beverage items, we can tailor a custom shipping container to house your operation with the work area and storage space you need to get your business up and running. When it comes to making the appearance of your concession stand eye-catching, we can customize the exterior of your shipping container concession stand to be distinctly different from your competitors.

Our in-house structural engineers will work with you to realize your dream of operating a concession stand from the moment you first contact BMarko Structures. We’ll also help you get started faster by doing more than “just” constructing your fully customized shipping container concession stand in less time than it would to stick-build one on-site. We’ll also take care of getting the permit you’ll need for your new concession stand, saving you valuable time and sparing you the headaches from all the paperwork.

To learn more about what we can do for you, give us a call, reach out to us online by using our live chat feature or complete a request for a free quote. From conception and visualization through project completion, we look forward to working with you to create the customized, affordable shipping container concession stand you’ve been looking for. Contact us today!

Georgia’s Modular Concession Stand Experts

BMarko is a recognized innovator in the field of modular design and modification. We’re based in Atlanta, but our concession stand constructions can be shipped throughout Georgia and the rest of the country. Our designs can be customized with weatherproofing, insulation, and heating and cooling systems, making them suitable for use in any climate.

If you’re looking for an attractive, economical and eco-friendly alternative to traditional construction, contact a BMarko sales representative today at (678) 666-3688!